Developers group article suggests gays and ‘the guy with tattoos’ may not feel welcome in suburbs

Calgary Herald12.04.2013

Guy Huntingford, CEO of the Urban Development Institute’s Calgary branch, apologized “unconditionally to anyone who was offended,” after the group published an article on its website that suggested gays and people with tattoos might not feel comfortable in the suburbs.Dean Bicknell
/ Calgary Herald

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he was “shocked that in 2013, not 1958, you actually have quote-unquote research that shows that minorities and people with tattoos and gay people should live in different neighbourhoods,” in response to an article posted on the website of the Urban Development Institute.Ted Rhodes Ted Rhodes
/ Calgary Herald

Calgary’s main developers group apologized Thursday after igniting furor and mockery with an article some say preached segregation by suggesting that gay couples may not feel comfortable living “in a world of heterosexual suburbanites.”

But it only did so after several cries of protest — most notably from Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

The online article, removed a day after Urban Development Institute’s Calgary branch posted it Wednesday, said research exists that “how comfortable a person feels in a place where no one is like them” is a “profound influence” in people’s housing choice, and that the city should be planned accordingly.

“It’s amusing, but it’s also deeply offensive to the kind of community that we’re building here,” the mayor said in an interview. “I’m shocked that in 2013, not 1958, you actually have quote-unquote research that shows that minorities and people with tattoos and gay people should live in different neighbourhoods.”

Guy Huntingford, the group’s CEO, said his organization was attempting to celebrate diversity in the collaboratively written piece. (The article ends by saying as much.)

“I guess I accept that was not the right way to put it across, but it was to say that we’re all different,” he said Thursday.

“And, obviously, the examples that we used were obviously offensive to some people, which is unfortunate, and I would probably apologize for that.”

The article, based on research it never cites, relies on a concept named “comfort capital.”

“And it doesn’t just apply to visible minorities searching out the diaspora,” the article states.

“It can be the guy with tattoos, feeling on display every time he shops at the Safeway on the city’s periphery.

“Or the gay couple in a world of heterosexual suburbanites.”

The two-page piece goes on to say some women wouldn’t know what to wear at a hip nightclub, let alone want to go. “Shoe-horning everyone into mandated, single-vision neighbourhoods won’t work,” it concludes.

The article was posted on the UDI website under a “Just the Facts” banner. It’s apparently part of the group’s long-standing push to encourage more suburbs along with dense redevelopment — both of which city hall is accommodating in its plans.

Later in the day, Huntingford’s association issued a more definitive statement: “These examples didn’t work, and in fact were seen as offensive. UDI wishes to apologize unconditionally to anyone who was offended.”

Bev Sandalack, who leads the Urban Lab at University of Calgary, said she’s never heard of comfort capital. Nor did some urban sociologists the Herald consulted.

“But the way the UDI letter was reading is that people are feeling uncomfortable if they’re different,” she said. “And that’s twisting the logic, that letter could definitely promote a kind of bigotry that’s really unhealthy.”

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra, an urban designer by profession, said the article goes against the goals of Calgary, a pluralistic and integrated city.

“I was amazed that the suggestion that becoming a city of enclaves and ghettos is a trajectory we want to move in,” he said.

Calgarians on Twitter reacted with outrage and mockery. Some apologized for being straight with kids and living in the inner city, while others raised the need for crossover communities for gay people with tattoos.

The mayor deemed UDI’s apology as half-hearted, because it regretted the examples rather than the idea.

“That is the favourite argument of the intolerant: I’m sorry if my examples were offensive but I still believe in the core principle,” Nenshi told the Herald.

“And so what I need to hear from them is if they believe in the core principle — if they truly believe that we should build segregated neighbourhoods. That’s what I’m waiting for.”

This dust-up follows a year of flared tensions between Nenshi and the industry that city councillors engage with more often than any other.

In February, the mayor temporarily suspended the Canadian Home Builders Association’s local branch from city committees because the then-president uttered comments he didn’t like.

In April, a secretly taped political speech by Shane Homes founder Cal Wenzel led to months of Nenshi denouncing the builder’s political motives and campaign finance musings. Wenzel responded last month with a defamation lawsuit the mayor has vowed to fight in court.

Nenshi also made his push for higher developer levies in 2016 a central plank in his re-election campaign this fall.Asked about furthering conflict, Nenshi replied: “Why would they even conduct research to make a point like this? What is he planning? What reaction did he think would come up? So don’t tell me I’m starting things.”The mayor told his 147,000 Twitter followers Thursday the UDI article was “tripe,” and that developers should distance themselves from their association’s missive. He took to social media a day after his chief of staff had reached out to Huntingford, although the industry lobbyist was busy at a city planning committee and didn’t reply Wednesday.

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Developers group article suggests gays and ‘the guy with tattoos’ may not feel welcome in suburbs